In the art of electrical connectors for cables, the term cable termination typically means the connector that is or can be used at the end or at an intermediate portion of a cable to connect the conductors thereof to an external member, such as another connector, cable termination, printed circuit board or the like. A cable termination assembly is usually referred to as the combination of a cable termination with an electrical cable. Sometimes such terms are used interchangeably, depending on context.
Multiconductor electrical cable termination assemblies have been available to the electrical industry for a number of years. These cable termination assemblies have been available both in the unassembled form requiring mechanical assembly thereof which includes the mechanical clamping of the termination properly to secure the various elements of the termination and cable, and also as a permanent pre-assembled and molded integral structural combination. In both cases the junctions or connections of contacts with respective conductors are made by part of the contacts piercing through the cable insulation to engage a respective conductor; such connections are referred to as insulation displacement connections (IDC). Unfortunately, the mechanically assembled types of prior art cable terminations do not provide a hermetic seal which surrounds the junctions formed between the cable conductors and contacts of a termination so as to completely encapsulate the junctions and prevent the contamination thereof. Also, even in the directly molded integral structural combination IDC cable termination assemblies it may be the case that one or more of the IDC junctions is not fully encapsulated in the molding material.